design for ecological democracy

doesn't that sound grandiose?

its hard to argue with randy hester, and its also refreshing to read practical things and examples of beautiful development and urban design projects. the thing he does the best, though, is figure out how to ask the 'right' questions to get the 'right' answers out of people, in a way that's hard to accuse of being manipulative. he has a pretty impressive arsenal for public process: so far, my favorites are sacred space mapping and power mapping. both of these are strategies to get the community to understand something important about the process, that understanding will make them be better able to tackle the problem at hand. (knowing that there are places that are important to place history/identity that are shared [or universally disliked] and that there may be bigger forces driving a project than it first appears, and knowing their motivations is important.)

it's all about framing the question correctly, and this is something that has always been interesting to me -- and a little bit easier than other things. what is the problem we're trying to solve? are we trying to create a better car, or are we trying to have a transportation option that maximizes privacy, flexibility and independence? what of these features are most/least important? is there another way to solve it? do we need to make housing subsidies fair, or do we need to make housing affordable? hester illustrates this beautifully when he talks about manteo, north carolina. when the town was sold the idea of becoming a tourist desitination, public participation provided a number of suggestions about where to put big, placeless hotels. when the idea was to revitalize manteo without sacrificing what makes manteo a unique place, the unique amenities came forward and reinvigorated a unique craft, which boomed and brought tourists to manteo to see what it was all about.

he also explains a case study of harvard's day care playground, where at first blush parents wanted a playground that mimicked plastic suburban ones. upon closer examination, the parents wanted a lot of nature and hiding coves and a big tree that the kids could climb. the difference? the first time, they were asked, what kind of playground do you want? and the second time, they were asked, what are your best memories of play from your childhood that you would want your children to experience as well, and what's the best way to make that happen? (granted, he says that to get to the answers, the parents were willing to undergo a guided visualization that was something like self-hypnosis. good luck doing that with city council.)

but it takes an unraveling of the question, and examining the assumptions in the presentation. ask questions to questions. get to the bottom of things. i've always had a tendency toward this sort of thing, and grad school has really helped me do it better.